BT accountants to be quizzed

BRITAIN’S accountancy watchdog is probing PwC’s audit of BT following the telecoms giant’s Italian accounting scandal.

The Financial Reporting Council has started an investigation under the audit enforcement procedure into audits of BT done by PwC from 2015 to 2017.

It comes after the scandal at the firm’s Italian division, BT Italia, resulted in a £530m writedown.

Shares fell 19pc when BT revealed the scandal in January, wiping £8bn off its stock market value.

BT boss Gavin Patterson was stripped of his bonus following the debacle, with his total pay packet cut from £5.3m to £1.3m. KPMG is BT’s new auditor. PwC said it would co-operate fully with inquiries.